Here Come the Robots

RECENT STATEMENTS by tech luminaries suggest that robots with artificial intelligence (AI) are on the cusp of conquering the world. These fears are slightly overblown—researchers assure us that we are nowhere near “conscious” AI. More important, these apocalyptic predictions distract us from the problems that Christian ethics finds in existing forms of automation.

These problems arise from the replacement of central aspects of human existence for the sake of efficiency and convenience. Most obviously, automation leads to the replacement of workers, decimating not only manufacturing jobs but also white-collar jobs as AI becomes more sophisticated. Self-driving cars alone threaten 4 million jobs. While economists predict new employment opportunities, tech executives are less confident, leading to calls for a universal basic income.

Automation is also replacing inconvenient forms of relationship. In Alone Together, Sherry Turkle documents substitutes for relational labor that involve nurturing or therapy, such as robot caregivers for the elderly. Many people embrace these automated caregivers, projecting emotions upon them and sometimes preferring them to humans.

The turn from relationships is increasingly widespread in society. Internet algorithms provide us with a world that reflects ourselves back to us—movies, news, and friends already tailored to our interests. It is easy to understand this turn toward technology: Relationships can be difficult. They involve inconvenient emotions, unrestricted demands, and challenging points of view.

Automation even challenges that most troubling of relations, our own embodiment. Emerging from René Descartes’ philosophy that saw the body as mere mechanism and unnecessary for our identity, artificial intelligence suggests we can live a disembodied existence, such as some transhumanists’ longing to upload themselves to a computer. While transhumanism is a fringe movement, devices encourage more and more people to live with their attention drawn away from the embodied present.

By focusing on efficiency and convenience at the expense of difficult but true human goods, these technological developments participate in what Popes Francis and John Paul II have called the “technocratic paradigm,” the throwaway culture, or the culture of death.

These technologies can mislead us as to how to achieve a good life. Work ought not be merely a way to earn money for consumption, but a way to contribute to the common good and find meaning in our lives. Unemployment costs far more than a paycheck, as the rising number of “deaths of despair” indicates.

Further, humans are made for relations with others. In the Trinity, relation underlies all existence. While relationships can be difficult, it is precisely these troubling aspects that change us for the better. Others’ pain and difficulty drive us to transcend selfish concerns. The primordial sin, pride, is the denial of relationship, the turning away from God and others to the self.

Our body is not a neutral tool to use or discard at will. Through the incarnation, God took on a human body and all the weakness and limitations such a body entails. Our bodies are central to our eternal fate, since, from the earliest creeds, Christians have awaited the resurrection of the body.

These problems do not mean that Christians should reject automation. Technological developments can be a gift from God, but we must remain aware that both good and bad aspects of our culture become embedded in artifacts, possibly perpetuating misconceptions.

Cultural renewal may require changing our technology, sometimes even rejecting certain technologies. Most often, it will demand changes in design, such as forms of automation that assist rather than replace human workers. We should encourage the many researchers and engineers who are seeking better forms of technology, as well as take care in how we use our own devices.